


First Employee Loses

by DynamicKea



Series: Alternative Mentor AU [2]
Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Because Explosions are Fun, Gen, Nanosounds - Alternative Mentor AU, Nobody Dies, Stuff Blowing Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-11
Updated: 2015-02-11
Packaged: 2018-03-11 17:48:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3332090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DynamicKea/pseuds/DynamicKea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In one world, Nano was blown up at SipsCo and met Lalna.</p><p>In another, Nano watched an explosion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Employee Loses

Redstone wires crisscrossed along wooden walkways. Little sparkles like creeper sulphur lay half buried in the grass, along the grains of the planks, motes of light twinkling under the sun’s rays.

_Thump._

The sulphur was sent scattering as Nano dropped the TNT in the storehouse. She doubled over gasping silently for air, half choking from a lack of functioning lungs. When she managed to pull herself into some semblance of uprightness she looked like she was about to collapse at any moment. Being the apprentice of a farmer her average day did consist of carrying and shifting and hammering and mining, so she really should have been used to hard work by now.

However, Sjin hadn’t made her cart around a hundred tons of TNT all day. OK, it was probably more like one ton. It’s a shame that they weren’t made of flour and eggs, they’d probably be a lot lighter than TNT.

_Thump._

Another box of TNT had fallen against the floor beside her.

‘You alright?’ Sjin asked from behind Nano.

‘...Bmmaaaahgggh....’

Sjin kept squinting at Nano. ‘That’s a no then?’

Nano groaned again, her head thrown back to glare at the roof. ‘Why are we using explosives?’ she said.

‘Ah, well that’s obvious.’ Sjin sat on top of one of the heavy barrels. ‘It’ll take too long to dismantle it.’

'But we are dismantling it,' Nano shot back.

Sjin snorted. 'Yeah, at high speeds.'

_BANG BANG BANG._

The pair jumped and spun around to glare at the window. Sips glared back, rapping on the window again.

‘Hurry up you two, we don’t have all day!’ The man then strode away along the line of redstone. He paused and turned back. ‘I’ll set all this off if you take too long,’ he warned.

‘Will he really?’ Nano said.

Sjin hummed thoughtfully. ‘Probably.’ At Nano’s wide eyed stare, Sjin added, ‘W-well, not right now. He’d probably set it off as we head through the doors.’

‘So... we should run out the doors?’

‘Yeah. Yes, we should.’

Outside the storehouse Sips sneered as the two tumbled out of the storehouse. He pointed at the lever. ‘Everything wired up right?’ he said, his tone bored.

Nano stood and brushed herself up. ‘Yep!’ she said brightly. She leaned towards Sjin and muttered, ‘They are, right?’

Sjin nodded. ‘All ready to go. You got everything out?’

One of Sips’s hands drifted towards a pocket. ‘What do you take me for? Of course I got everything.’

‘What did you keep there anyway?’ Nano wrinkled her nose. ‘It smelled like feet in there.’

Sips grinned. ‘I think we did keep some in there for a while. Was it feet or hands we put in there, Sjin?’

‘I think it was toenails, actually.’

Nano scrunched up her face. ‘Ugh... but seriously, what did you have in there?’

‘Cocaine,’ Sips said.

The apprentice blinked with a blank expression, then snorted and rolled her eyes. ‘Well fine then, if you’re not gonna take me seriously....’

As Nano turned to watch the storehouse, Sips smirked. ‘Alright then, blowing this place sky high in three-’

He flipped the switch.

Nano flinched backwards, one hand rising to shield her eyes while they starting squinting at the storehouse.

The surprisingly intact storehouse.

There was a pause.

Sjin reached over and flipped the lever several times. ‘Um. What?’

The two assistants gazed along the lit redstone. The trail pulsed like a furnace and disappeared into the storehouse. Inside the storehouse, the TNT was distinctly not blowing up.

‘Well? What the fuck went wrong, Sjin?’ Sips drawled, lounging in one of the poolside deck chairs.

‘Um, ah, well... Nano must have wired it wrong,’ Sjin said dismissively.

‘W- hey!’ Nano spun around and jabbed the farmer in the chest. ‘This is not _my_ fault, Sjin!' 

‘Oooooh! Battle of the assistants! Don't worry, I'm rooting for you,’ Sips cheered, a light bulb bright grin on his face.

The two ignored him. ‘I'll have you know that _I_ am very good at blowing things up, thank you, so therefore it has to be-’

‘Mate, I barely touched the redstone, this is _all_ on you!’

‘Well if you're so clever, you fix it!’

‘No!’ Nano folded her arms. ‘I'm not going in there with blowing up stuff.’

Sjin mirrored his apprentice. ‘Well, I'm not going in either.’

‘Fine!’

‘Fine!’

There was a cough behind the pair. As one they turned, and as one they froze.

Sips was still reclining on his deckchair, but now he had dropped the grin. In its place he had picked up a mining laser and had it vaguely pointed at their faces.

‘S-Sips?’ Sjin instinctively stepped backwards. ‘What's with the gun...?’

The other rolled his eyes. ‘As much fun as it is to watch you argue, I'm still on a schedule.’ He gestured at the storehouse. ‘Hurry up and get the redstone working.’

‘Or what?’ Nano said, eyeing the laser in confusion.

‘Or he'll shoot you with the laser,’ Sjin hissed.

‘Oh.’ Nano began to edge backwards. ‘Why does he have a laser? I thought you were joking about those existing.’

Sips grinned. That was all the warning Nano had before Sips began shooting at her feet.

‘Run!’ Sjin yelped, shoving Nano towards the storehouse.

As the pair dove into the house, bits of redstone grazing their skin, they heard Sips yell, ‘Last one out gets a laser!’

‘You think he'll actually shoot us?’ Nano asked.

There was a soft _ping_ and the sharp smell of burning metal.

‘Uh, maybe? He might shoot _you_.’

Nano wrung her hands helplessly. ‘So what do we do? How do we fix this?’

Sjin settled back into the now familiar role of mentoring. ‘Right, we need to get any of these TNT to connect with the lit redstone.’ Sjin leaned against a block, getting ready to push. ‘See how the redstone's not lighting up in here? It's all too far away from the switch.’

‘I think it's not lighting up 'cause Sips turned it all off,’ Nano said, peering out the window towards said man.

‘Did he?’ Sjin paused in his TNT shoving. 'Great, we won't start blowing up the second I hit redstone. Help me push the rest closer?’

Nano groaned and reached for another TNT box. This one was balanced precariously on the windowsill, and it only took a minute for Nano to shove it on top of the redstone. ‘There, can we get out now?’

‘Yeah, hang on, hang on, just another block. Wait for me, alright?’ Sjin said. He grunted as the block slid forward another few microblocks. Nano gave her mentor a fond grin, and glanced out the window again.

This is what she saw.

She saw the SipsCo compound, half fallen into disrepair after both Sips and Sjin had left the compound behind. She saw the cracks on the pavement like a giant had taken a hammer to the ground, and scorched holes where creepers had slept.

Nano saw the half drained pool with algae dancing on its surface. She saw the crumbling tower barely hanging by a few blocks of stone.

And finally, most importantly of all, she saw Sips flick the switch again.

 

In a world sideways of this one, upon seeing Sips activate the redstone Nano would have screamed and attempted to shove the TNT off the redstone. This would have alerted Sjin to the danger and he would have dived out of the storehouse, expecting Nano to be behind him. Instead, Nano would have been shoved over onto the top of the TNT by one of his flailing hands. While Sjin would have been blasted forward into Sips and into the pool, Nano would have been flung into the air and ended up landing in a fountain several long kilometres away.

In another world, Nano would not have screamed. Instead she would have frozen on the spot, paralysed with fear as the redstone's light sped towards them. The TNT would have detonated and then both Nano and Sjin would have been blasted into the sky. They would not have landed in a fountain. Instead they would have landed in a crater near a floating pub and undergone a long journey back to the farm. When they arrived, they would have found yet another empty and smoking hole courtesy of a purple faced foe.

When a person encounters danger, they do one of three things. Fight, freeze, or flight. In this world, she tried to run.

 

‘Sjin!’

Nano’s mentor glanced up, only to choke as Nano grabbed him by the collar. ‘Nano?!’

The TNT Sjin was pushing fell, pinching Sjin's trousers underneath it. Nano stumbled as her grip on Sjin was lost and she fell out the door.

As Sjin pulled himself free, the TNT flashed.

Bright light struck Nano and sent her rocketing out of the doorway. Roaring and furious flames licked against her back, only being extinguished by her landing face first into the pool. Nano struck the underside of the pool, her feet sliced by the cracking tiles.

There was a scream. It trailed upwards, fading like an airplane as distance overtook volume.

Nano kicked her way upwards, half choking on the algae. ‘Sjin?’ she managed to croak.

A gaping wound in the world greeted her, smoke and fire spinning in uncertain circles and devouring the remains of the storehouse. Nano grasped the side of the pool, her eyes remaining fixed on the rubble. One minute it was a sturdy storehouse and the next....

Sips had stood up, eyeing the ruins. ‘Oops,’ he said.

‘Oops?!’ Nano retched, spitting out water and dragging herself onto the poolside. ‘You blew Sjin up!’

Sips shrugged and started to fold up his chair. ‘That was a bit stupid of him. What the fuck was he thinking, going in there with you?’

‘You pointed a laser at us!’

‘Well, he didn't see the secret, “I'm not gonna kill you” signal then.’

Nano bunched her fists, pulling herself to her not-very-impressive full height. ‘You still _shot_ him, you tried to blow both of us into a million bits!’

Sips shrugged, an easy going grin on his face. He slung the folded chair over his shoulder. ‘Well, I'm going home. Good job with the redstone and killing your mentor.’

‘What, hey _wait a second_.’ The girl grabbed hold of Sips’s chair, bringing him to a halt. Sips glanced back, an eyebrow raised.

‘What the fuck are you doing now?’ he complained.

Nano shook the chair, jabbing it into Sips’s neck. ‘You, you are going to take me back to the farm before you go and prance off, you hear me?!’

‘Prance off?’

‘Yes! Now take me back before I...’ Nano paused for a second, ‘before I hit you with this chair!’

Sips shoved Nano’s hands off the chair. ‘Fine, I'll drop you off some of the way-’

‘All of the way!’

‘Alright alright! Sheesh, I'm going, I'm going!'

 

In this world Nano still left the SipsCo compound at high speeds. Except this time she left in a stolen airplane piloted by, in her words, a jerk.

And Sjin flew, half conscious but alive, into the distance.

 

 

 


End file.
